Adventures in Curry Making

This past Friday I had the opportunity to help make a traditional Khmer meal for my sister's graduation party. The whole experience, from going to the market, participating in the long process of actually cooking it, and tasting the final product was very interesting! I thought many of you would enjoy reading about the way curry is made in Cambodia. Yummy!!

As much as I love Khmer food we don't eat it very often in our house. :( Most of the missionaries here eat Cambodian food on a regular basis, but my Mom decided early on to keep our household as Americanised as possible. I would prefer Khmer food more often, nevertheless, I respect my Mom's decision. Because of this, none of us know how to make curry. Therefore, we asked our helper to make it. At first she was hesitant and claimed it probably wouldn't be good, but we convinced her. :) Before I start on my food-making adventure, here's a sneak peek at the finished product. It was so delicious!!! 😊

Deborah was busy helping Mom with things and Dad was doing last minute things as well as supervising house cleanup so I volunteered to help! :) We call our helper Ohm-the proper term of respect to call someone that is older than your parents-but her real name is Ang. I will refer to her as Ohm for this post. Ohm and I set off for the market near our house on Thursday midmorning. Some of the ingredients need to bought the day of, but most of them can be purchased the day before. I took several pictures at the market because it better showcases the traditional open air market better than the Russian Market did. The Russian Market is primarily a tourist market (I have a separate post about it if you would like to know more).

I quickly discovered that Ohm wastes no time! We scurried around the market buying lots of stuff! I don't even know what half of it is called. :) Once we start purchasing things I couldn't take lots of pictures since I had bags hanging off my arms and a special treat-sugar cane juice. :)

I saw lots of interesting things at the market! If I didn't have a blog I definitely wouldn't have taken the camera for fear of it being stolen, dropped, or me forgetting it somewhere!! Being my wonderful self I wouldn't have been surprised if any of this had happened. 😋 I've heard from several people that they enjoyed the pictures of the Russian Market so I faced my fears and took the camera.

There are so many unique sights, sounds, and smells when going through a big market like that!! You must stay alert though to stay out of the way of traffic, people, seller's stands, nasty stuff that might be on the ground, or a live fish struggling on the ground. I got lost in the moment of just looking at everything that I almost stepped on a fish that had flopped out of its assigned spot! Yes, there are live fish for sale at the market. They're kept in big pans of water and often manage to flop out and wiggle around on the ground until someone (most likely the seller) thinks to plop it back in the water. There are also butchered fish which are very disgusting. Blood and guts are the main words I thought of when I saw them. 😧

This lady is busy hacking away at big slabs of meat. I would definitely gross out if I had that job. 

Next are vegetables. A little less vicious. :) Can you tell any of these apart? At first glance it honestly just looks like a bunch of the same old vegetable. Yet each one tastes different and most Khmers can point them out quickly!

These weird things captured my attention. The ones on the left look like little green tomatoes that someone started spraying with white spray paint from the bottom. The ones on the right look like green beans with spikes along the sides. That's basically how I "name" everything. 😆

We arrived home and did some prep beforehand for the next day. We peeled a bunch of garlic, shallots, and onions. I even started crying, BUT THEN I remembered a trick I had heard from somewhere to keep from crying. Chewing gum!! It worked. :)

The next day Ohm came earlier than normal. She cut the chicken (which we bought at a sanitary supermarket NOT the open air market), while I did the wonderfully tiresome job of chopping the skins of chilli peppers until it made a paste. 

Khmers usually do all their cooking outside on mats on the ground. They're more comfortable doing stuff on the floor so Ohm made me work on the floor with her. I managed to sneak back up to the counter near the end though. 😋 So in case any of y'all were wondering, no, we don't cook on the floor normally. 😄

Ingredients soon crowded the island as Ohm began the cooking process. It starts with fresh coconut milk. That's about the only thing I remember! 😋 I was still busy preparing the potatoes, green beans, and other stuff so I didn't really get to see everything she was doing up there at the stove. Mom came to my rescue and took some pictures though. She's the best! :) I have no idea what Ohm was putting in there nor the order. The purpose of this post is not so y'all can know how to make curry and make it yourselves (though if you wanna try...go ahead, but don't blame me when it doesn't work because I really don't have the proper information you would need), but rather to share a fun experience I had on the mission field.

Ohm was periodically adding all sorts of things to that pot. Coconut milk, some type of leaf, potatoes, green beans, peanuts, onions, shallots, garlic, curry powder, sweetened condensed milk, water, chicken, the chilli paste stuff, and a TON of other stuff that I don't even know how to describe. It was interesting though and she totally knew what she was doing.

I thought these things were so cool! I have no idea what to call it in English, but I would say they look a bit like mini velvet-colored chocolate chips. Based on their use I would also call them chopped up crayons. In a separate pot Ohm heated some oil and then added these little guys in. They didn't break down at all, but merely gave off a beautiful red color which she then added to the curry through a strainer. It was impressive! :)

At some point she also added star anise. I couldn't resist taking a neat picture of it. :)

It was done within a couple hours. Ohm definitely overestimated and we ended up with 2 big pots of curry!!! We almost ate everything in the biggest pot, but not quite. We had lots of leftovers!! It was spectacular and I definitely had fun making it. :)

Thanks for reading and comment below if you'd like. Have a great day! 

"Pressing Forward" Bible Conference

New Hope Baptist Church in Phnom Penh hosted a Bible conference during the national holiday celebrating the king's birthday. Lots of churches joined together to praise the Lord, encourage one another, and learn from His Word. The theme was "Pressing Forward." The conference was held at Mt. Calvary Baptist Church whose spacious property could seat everyone in attendance. Churches from several provinces made the long trip to attend, the farthest being Siem Reap which is 6 hours away. 

There was a total of about 170 delegates. Praise the Lord for this wonderful time of Christian fellowship and revival! The sermons and teachings were convicting and encouraging, the congregational singing was powerful and soul-stirring, and the time of fellowship at mealtimes was wonderful. I believe God was glorified during those two days and many people were encouraged and strengthened through the teaching of God's Word. We don't have events like this often so it was definitely a treat!

Registration began at 1:00 p.m. on May 14th. Excitement filled the air as people received their conference booklets and name tags. The seats filled up quickly and excitement mounted as people honestly yearned for God to work in their hearts and lives!

Before the opening services on both days, we had a time of prayer asking God to work in our hearts. This is a group of several men from our church.

The first service began at 2:00 p.m. and we were challenged by a message from Missionary Rodney Ruppel. This whole conference wouldn't have been possible without his vision, sacrifice, and determination. Thank you, Bro. Ruppel, for starting this conference! Many hearts were stirred, challenged, and changed because you listened to God's voice to begin an annual conference.

During each service, we had the privilege of listening to several people's salvation testimonies. Praise the Lord for His mercy and grace! With each testimony of how God changed someone's life I was reminded how good and gracious the Lord is! There is NO ONE in this world that God can't get a hold of their life and completely change it by His grace!

This is a lady in our church who was reached about 12 years ago when our church was out on  Saturday passing out tracts. She came, got saved along with some other family members, then patiently waited for a spouse. She married a solid Christian young man (who also got saved in our church) in August 2016. They now have a cute 5 month old named Rachel!

The split sessions were amazing and well-taught! The ladies learned about the duties of women in the church from Mrs. Shrock.

Men went with Pastor Tho.

Pastors went with Bro. Ruppel.

Monday's dinner and Tuesday's lunch were served at the conference. As people left on Tuesday, we were given a box of fried rice to eat on the way home. There's a certain style of dining that's called "Chinese tables". Basically there are 10 spots at each table and your table has to be full before they bring the food! It's actually kind of sad. :( Sometimes you only have one empty spot left and people still looking for a seat are paired up with a friend and don't want to be separated. But everyone at your table is hungry!!!!! Then eventually someone comes and everything turns out ok. :) This was my group on Monday night. 

Pastor Mike Valdez preached on Monday night. 

Also in each service was some special music. My dad, older sister, and I sang a few songs. I particularly loved the choir from the Shrock's church from Siem Reap. They had wonderful choir arrangements and sang out good and strong! My heart was touched during their songs. I wish I could post videos of them, but they're too long to upload to my blog! :( Just take my word for it that they were fantastic! :)

Tuesday's service started at 9:00 a.m. after another time of prayer. Pastor Kounaro Keo shared a message during this service. He is the pastor of Mt. Calvary Baptist Church, the place where the conference was held. I'm thankful for his willingness to use his church's property to host such a big event. 

We had some more split sessions before lunch. Pastors and pastors' wives were taught by Pastor Sakaun. Everyone else was with my dad. He taught on how to be a successful soul winner. 

For Tuesday's lunch I ended up with my family and some church people along with three other people I've known my whole life. :) 

Here's what the traditional meal at nice events look like. It's typically always a bowl of rice and then several other entrees. I tried everything and most of it was pretty good! 

That day was our lucky day and we got a whole fish as an entree!! :) It was served with some pickled fruits and vegetables (in the bottom right corner).  I'm not exactly sure what all was in it, but I know there were mangoes and carrots. The fish, pickled stuff, and rice made a delicious combination!

I'm not really sure what to call the other two items. One was a soup with lots of unrecognisable things. The only things I know for sure was pineapple and chicken. 

The other item was just a bunch of vegetables, chicken, and shrimp. It wasn't a stir-fry so I'm not sure what it was. 

We even got dessert on Tuesday. What a treat!! This soupy looking stuff is classified as dessert. :) As you can probably imagine, it felt like eating earthworms. The long slimy green things are actually a form of Cambodian jelly type stuff. The big chunks of light green are winter melon and those few little orange pieces are jackfruit. I have to admit that having a bowl of this..stuff..set in front of me didn't make me feel that great. :) I timidly tried a bite and found that it didn't taste that bad despite the unappetising look. It was very sweet and the mushy green things didn't taste bad at all. Just the whole idea of soupy dessert with worm looking things and floating pieces of fruit didn't set well with me. I didn't eat it all, but I ate my fill. :)

After lunch we had the final split sessions. All men went with Missionary Eli Shrock. A good-sized group from his church traveled all the way from Siem Reap in a van. They obviously wanted to participate in this so bad that they were willing to travel that long distance and pay extra expenses such as gas money.  

All the ladies went with Pastor Wang's wife, Srey Oun. All the pastors' wives were taught by Mrs. Ruppel.

Nearly everything was hosted outside under a canopy thing that New Hope rented. These canopy things are most commonly used for weddings and funerals. The sound guy was most curious about our services and was asking questions. Pastor Wang even got to witness to him on Tuesday afternoon. Praise the Lord that we were a good testimony to this unsaved man!

The final service began at 2:30. After the singing, specials, testimonies, and announcements Pastor Sakaun got up to preach. He wasn't more than 10 minutes into his sermon when a huge thunder storm came! The place was chaos as mopeds were brought in, instruments were covered, and electrical wires for fans and such were quickly unplugged so none of us would die. I quickly discovered why there are those little curtains along the sides! They're to untie when rain comes! Mind blown! Rain started coming in the sides underneath the curtains so we all scrunched into the middle. Once things started to settle down, Pastor Sakaun kept preaching. He was practically yelling to be heard over the rain. It was fun! These pictures are before the rain came. 

Overall, the spirit at each service was one of excitement! The theme song for the conference was "We  are More Than Conquerors". There was piano, drum, two trumpets, and a trombone! It was cool!

Here are some pictures of before and during services.

This conference really touched hearts and changed lives. People left the conference praising the Lord for working in their hearts and excited to attend next year! This was truly an amazing conference and I can't wait for next year! Thanks for reading! Comment below if you'd like. Have a great day!